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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Bukowsical Also see Richard's review of An Iliad
It's that sensibility that says 'life is gross and people are mad, and any intelligent decision you may possibly dare to make will always be destroyed by corrupt authority figures so you might as well just jump on board the Hell-bound train and get it over with.' Plus, it's really funny and outrageous. Maybe we would have gone to the basement, as the sirens wailed, if the show had been The Sound of Music: which teaches us that good can overcome evil (even if it means crossing the Alps on foot with a bunch of spoiled little brats). Or maybe we would have gone to the basement if it were My Fair Lady: which teaches us that it's better to enter into a sham marriage with an abusive, closeted gay guy than go back to a life in the gutter. Because we want to believe these things—or, at least, we want to believe these things will lead to something that will be somehow just slightly more tolerable. Those are shows you bring an umbrella to—in hopes of a brighter tomorrow. And yet I didn't see a single bumbershoot on this very stormy Friday night. So, there we sat, 100 strong (that's an estimate), as the steady mechanical howl outside turned to a strangely panicked hoot-hoot-hoot, which I don't remember ever hearing before in 45 years of living in Tornado Alley. And I think we sat there because we want to believe it will all lead to something worse. Something that validates what we have actually witnessed in our own lives: that the system is rigged in favor of corruption. That God has sub-contracted out the management of this world to the worst possible slave-state plantation foreman in the Universe. And that it all really needs to be set to music. Hilarious and wise Zachary Allen Farmer stars as the stoic Charles Bukowski (1920-1994), the nihilist writer who's the focus of this riotous dark mess, and directed by the too-young-to-be-venerable Scott Miller. But this is sort of his métier, so I guess he technically qualifies as venerable in this narrow context (his newest book is "Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n Roll and Musicals," 2011). And, top to bottom, you couldn't ask for a better group of performers for a show like this. Words in Bukowsical are by Spencer Green and Gary Stockdale, with music by Gary Stockdale. And it began its gritty but irresistible life in 2006 as a "late night musical" at the Sacred Fools Theatre in Los Angeles. So, we watch as the very young Bukowski is crushed by other schoolchildren, and mocked by his teacher, and loathed by his father. But then, growing up, he goes out on his own odyssey, hobnobbing with hobos and whores and impoverished Native Americans "on the derelict trail." And, by some strange counter-cultural accident, it lands him in the exact same ballpark, in the 1950s, as Jack Kerouac and the Beat Poets. Then, out in sunny, arid Los Angeles, he plies his trade as an author, gets drunk a lot, and gradually develops some minor recognition. And yet, in spite of the obvious squalor (Bukowski is best known for the movie Barfly), it's all extremely wry and funny and highly entertaining, set to the familiar musical styles of the '50s. Bizarre women swirl into his orbit, played by Kimi Short (who was so great this spring in Next to Normal), the insanely clever Marcy Wiegert, and the darkly giggle-inducing Chrissy Young. On top of all that, the show is smoothly, almost gleefully narrated by the delightful Joel Hackbarth (think Eric Stonestreet from Modern Family). Ryan Foizey is spooky-good as Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, with Christopher Strawhun and Nicholas Kelly as great authors and movie stars. Everyone on stage, and in the band, is a heavy-hitter. And that feeling in the air, of a World Series just-won, is a tribute to all their precision and effort and talent, and even hopeful endurance, in spite of the storms, throughout. Through June 22, 2013, at the South Campus of Washington University (the old CBC prep school, across from the Esquire Theater and St. Mary's Hospital) 6501 Clayton Rd., just east of Big Bend Blvd. For more information visit them at www.newlinetheatre.com or call (314) 773-6526. The Players The Artistic Staff The New Line Band
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